Sick Fancy Guppy

[Kmueller]

Our sweet Guppy gave birth on Mother Day. She seemed to do well but the next day we noticed she wasn’t swimming and stayed close to the bottom of the tank. Over the course of the next few days she seemed to gain some energy but developed what looked like contusions on the side of her head. She again seemed to have low energy and wasn’t eating. The spots disappeared but she has now developed the same contusion looking wound on her side and it appears to be open and she is not doing well. What happened to her???

 

[Colin_T]

I'm assuming the fish normally has a yellow body and the red patch on her side is not normal colour?

The red sore is a bacterial infection. What other fish do you have in the tank? One of them might have attacked her. Regardless of that tho, she needs some broad spectrum medication that contains Methylene Blue, or a medication for treating bacterial and fungal infections.

Carefully move her to another tank to treat her. Keep her in water and don't lift her out with a net. Use a net to chase her into a small bucket then lift her out.

To work out the volume of water to treat her:
measure length x width x height in cm.
divide by 1000.
= volume in litres.

You can use the Calculator in the "How To Tips" to convert litres to US or British gallons.

When you measure the height, measure from the top of the gravel to the top of the water level.

Remove carbon from filter before treating or the carbon will absorb the medication.